Increasingly, XML documents are being stored and managed within content repositories. These content repositories are typically based on a database system and offer file system abstractions such as foldering, access control, versioning, and protocol access.
At times, it is necessary to update XML documents stored within content repositories. A request to update an XML document stored in a content repository will indicate the position of the nodes targeted by the update. Nodes may also be called elements. One common way of indicating positions in an XML document is to use XPath.